January: photographs of the month

Charlotte Armitage , 08/02/2018

A single snowdrop (Anastasia Stratigou)

Snowdrops (Sheila Ripper)

A close up of some snowdrops (Becky Barrett)

A drift of snowdrops (Joe Margetts)

During January we received over 100 photographs, which is the most since we added the photo tool. We really enjoyed looking through your lovely images and the decision to choose our favourites has been extremely difficult. Thanks, too, to everyone that has recorded this month. We’ve had 698 records from 397 of you.

Frogspawn (Rowena Millar)

Two frogs with their spawn (Pippa Hine)

A close up of some frogspawn (Howard Evans)

January highlights:

We have had 226 records of snowdrops first flowering. A true sign that spring is on the way.

Snowdrops (Paul Pritchard)

Two snowdrops (Sian Lewis)

One opened and one closed snowdrop (Sally Outram)

We have had some extremely early insect sightings which include 4 ladybird records and 11 butterfly records of varying species. This could be due to the mild temperatures we have experienced during January.

Red admiral butterfly (Lynn Earnshaw)

7 spot ladybird (Keri Lloyd)

Peacock butterfly (Maureen Sibthorp)

Other popular sightings have been the appearance of frogs spawn, hazel first flowering, and lesser celandine first flowering. Have you seen any of these signs of spring?

Hazel catkins (Emma Morris)

Lesser celandine flowering (Kay Shaw)

A close up of catkins (Lorraine Besent)

Song thrush (Paul Beech)

A huge thank you for all your records over January regardless of whether or not you uploaded photos. Every record helps scientists discover more about how UK wildlife is responding to a changing climate.

Hazel shrub with catkins (Dawn Greaves)

Elder first leaf (Christopher Spring)

Join thousands of other people and let us know what's happening to wildlife near you.

Have you seen your first butterfly or swallow of the spring? Is it a good year for wild autumn fruits? Take part in Nature's Calendar and help scientists to monitor the effects of climate change on wildlife.